To accommodate the busy and often harried traveler, disposable toothbrushes have been designed that can be used away from home, for example on a trip, or that can be offered for single use in establishments receiving the public, such as hotels and restaurants. These disposable toothbrushes have eliminated the need for a separate tube of toothpaste by incorporating in or on the brush a sufficient dose of a flavored toothpaste for brushing the teeth, the flavor being added to encourage oral hygiene practices.
Many such prior art disposable toothbrushes are complex and/or expensive, as where a mechanism is included for distributing the toothpaste onto the bristles just prior to use. In other prior art disposable toothbrushes, the toothpaste is preapplied to the bristles, but such toothbrushes have proved unstable, in that the flavoring dissipates after a relatively short period of time, which is impractical as commercial considerations require a reasonable shelf life. As a result, prior art disposable toothbrushes have, for the most part, not proved commercially successful, primarily because no known prior art disposable toothbrush has satisfied the multiple criteria of a preapplied toothpaste thereby eliminating the need for a distribution mechanism, a reasonable shelf life, and a low manufacturing cost.
Other preapplied toothpaste formulations such as those described U.S. Pat. No. 5,605,756, 5,783,249, and 5,888,578, all of which are herein incorporated by reference in their entireties, implement a metal ion graft initiator and peroxide catalyst. Generally the amount and types of metal ions and peroxide catalysts used are safe for application in the mouth. However, a formulation omitting these ingredients would be preferable.